TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 I have posted these teeth already, but I have yet to add them to this post. Pennington Formation Mississippian (Chesterian) Marine Petalorynchus sp. This tooth is my favorite tooth in my collection! Megactenopetalus sp. This is the earliest occurrence of this genus. It is currently at the American Museum of National History. I still need to post a topic on that donation. Continued... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 Continued... Conularid These are pretty cool. They are thought to be Cnidaria, but scientists are still unsure of what they were. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 This next trip was a scouting trip to a new pile of Bangor Limestone rocks! This site ended up being pretty nice, with no evidence of anyone ever collecting there. I found several nice teeth and some cool inverts as well. Bangor Formation Mississippian (Chesterian) Marine Symmorium Front Unfortunately I busted this one up during removal, but it is still really nice, especially due to its size! Symmorium Back Cladodus sp. This is a nice tooth!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 Continued... Helodus sp. This is a big one for this genus! This next one was found in the Bangor Limestone by my mother several months ago. Needless to say I was proud of her! Psammodus sp. This one here was found in the same area as the Psammodus. I busted it out during a heavy rainstorm. Chomatodus sp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 This one was found as I was going through some matrix I brought home. This is the first of this genus that I have found at this site. it only measures about 6mm in length, but is pretty much 100% complete, which is exciting. Protacrodus sp. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 This weekend, I went with Jim (JimB88) to several different sites in East Tennessee. All sites were Mississippian, only 3 of which ended up having fossils. The first site we went to was the Pennington Formation, a site that we both go to quite often (Jim goes more than I do, because unlike him, I live 2 hours away from it). It is a nice site, where most fossils are found in finely laminated hash plates representing a turbid near shore marine environment. We met up at 8:45AM, I saw Jim playing around in the ditch, and I joined and we found some nice stuff! This first is a piece of hash plate with two types of bryozoans on it. Top: Polypora Bottom: Fennestella This is a nice little tooth I found. It is a baby Petalodus. Baby Petalodus sp. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 That isn't all I found at the Pennington, but it is all that I took pictures of so far. Next stop was a remarkably unfossiliferous roadcut of the Mississippian Monteagle Limestone. The entire section is over 50 feet tall, but the only spot that appears to have fossils is a tiny 1 to 8 inch thick layer of green (very very stick) mud/shale. In it, lots of nice horn corals and other inverts can be found. I picked up a good share of horn corals, a few nice little gastropods, some brachiopods, and a nice large sponge. All finds: Bottom left: Large Unidentified Sponge Middle: Gastropod and Brachipod Upper: Horn Corals Here is a closeup of the gastro, piece of another gastro, and the small brach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 Next site was a spot that I showed Jim for the first time. It is the Bangor Limestone, and contains some cool finds! I found several teeth and some neat inverts. Jim found a large conularid, a rarity for this formation. I spent quite a while busting this large tooth out of the rock. Nearing the end, I scream, Jim looks over....we both knew what happened, it busted in about 30 pieces. I picked up as much as I could and spent a few hours gluing it back together under the microscope at home, but it is still really busted up. Regardless, it is the largest cladodus I have ever found, and at least I got the tip. Cladodus sp. Next up is a tooth I spent far too long trying to get out given its bad condition. Jim made fun of me for it. He also mentioned several times that I am too obsessed with these Mississippian teeth. And yes, it is indeed true! My goal is to amass as many different kinds that I possibly can, and it is going pretty well so far. Poecilodus sp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 Jim found this nice specimen. Unfortunately, it was still moving. You would think that after 340 million years it would have quit! Earth Snake Holocene 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 (edited) Finally, after Jim left, I decided to go to the Bangor Limestone quarry that I frequent, and get some more matrix to bring back to look through. I also happened to find a few teeth while there, only one of which I have photographed. The other is stuck in a block of calcite and I have no idea how to get it out in one piece. Psephodus sp. I finally decided to go home after filling my backpack up with like 50 pounds of rock. I was already very tired, and this made the hike out of the quarry very tiresome, but quite beautiful as the Sun was setting over the valley. It was a good day of fossiling with Jim! Edited April 26, 2016 by TNCollector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darktooth Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Very interesting finds! Thanks for the post and pics! I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 That is quite the diversity of teeth! Do you think it would be worth investing in a rock saw? It would have killed me to shatter that Cladodus tooth. Alternatively, you could cover the tooth with tape as you try to chisel it out, so if it breaks the bits will stay stuck to the tape and can be recovered. Don 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Really nice finds in these recent trips! I would definitely use the tape trick in the future. Shame about that Cladodus tooth. Still, a nice example. Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 I wonder how phosphatic these teeth are. Might it be possible to etch them from the limestone matrix using buffered acetic acid? As I recall, with this technique you buffer the acid with sodium phosphate, which reduces the solubility of solid phosphate (such as the fossil) so it is not etched while the acid dissolves the carbonate (limestone) matrix. People use this approach for recovering conodonts from limestone. Don 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 Very interesting finds! Thanks for the post and pics! Thank you darctooth!! That is quite the diversity of teeth! Do you think it would be worth investing in a rock saw? It would have killed me to shatter that Cladodus tooth. Alternatively, you could cover the tooth with tape as you try to chisel it out, so if it breaks the bits will stay stuck to the tape and can be recovered. Don Thanks! I have considered buying one, but the quarry I collect in most often is private property, and I am not sure if the landowner would want me to bring a gas powered rock saw in there. The other site I collect is a roadcut, and I highly doubt the police would like that. I will have to look into it. Really nice finds in these recent trips! I would definitely use the tape trick in the future. Shame about that Cladodus tooth. Still, a nice example. Regards, I do use rubber cement on the teeth to eliminate losing as many bits as I can, and it usually works, but in the case of this Cladodes, it broke from the bottom (underneath the rock) on the parts that were note touching the rubber cement, so I lost a lot of it. It was very depressing.... I wonder how phosphatic these teeth are. Might it be possible to etch them from the limestone matrix using buffered acetic acid? As I recall, with this technique you buffer the acid with sodium phosphate, which reduces the solubility of solid phosphate (such as the fossil) so it is not etched while the acid dissolves the carbonate (limestone) matrix. People use this approach for recovering conodonts from limestone. Don I have cleaned matrix off the teeth using 5% acetic acid before, and it does not affect the teeth at all. It just takes such a long time... I might have to try your method using the buffer, as with that method I might be able to use a high concentration of acid. I might take one of the teeth to the lab and put it under the SEM electron spectrometer to get better idea of what these teeth are made of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimB88 Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 Wow! Your mom found a good one! Love the Protacrodus too! The conularid is neat to and in good shape. It Paraconularia btw. That was a fun trip! We'll have to do that again! Its funny, when I got back I saved a bigger version of that snake from one of my cats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted April 27, 2016 Author Share Posted April 27, 2016 Wow! Your mom found a good one! Love the Protacrodus too! The conularid is neat to and in good shape. It Paraconularia btw. That was a fun trip! We'll have to do that again! Its funny, when I got back I saved a bigger version of that snake from one of my cats. Yeah she did! The Protacrodus is a really nice specimen. Unsurprisingly, the smaller teeth always seem to be in the best condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 Yesterday was quite an adventure. I drove 2 and a half hours from my home in search of the Borden Formation of South Central Kentucky, and I struck gold! Okay, so not literally gold, but I found lots of fossils. including my first Early Mississippian shark teeth, with two of these teeth being some of the best in my collection. When I stopped at the first roadcut, I started collecting in the Nada Member of the Borden Formation, which is a green/black shale with thing limestone interbeds. Every flake of shale appeared to be covered in bryozoans, and many nicely preserved crinoid stems with intact cilia were found. I was getting slightly disappointed, as I was only finding crinoid stems and bryozoans, but after a while, I picked up two glimmers of hope sitting right next to each other, a broken conularid and a broken piece of bradyodont shark tooth. I started finding more bits of pieces and noticed the trend - the fossils were in a particular layer below a large layer of limestone. As I was walking up to an exposed part of the layer, I saw this poking out of a large boulder in the ditch. A huge bradyodont shark tooth, in perfect condition! Of course, like always, the tooth was in the middle of boulder. Luckily for me, this rock was not like the hard blocky limestone I was used to, it was rather soft and was slightly prone to breaking on the bedding plane. Poking out of the rock. Notice the beautiful banded coloration on the tooth. It was weathered enough to give it this nice color, but not so weathered as to destroy the enamel. I found this tooth with perfect timing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 (edited) A photo of the extraction process. This took nearly 30 minutes to get out of the rock. But I was going slow, I probably would have cried if I broke the tooth. Continued on next post... Edited May 7, 2016 by TNCollector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 And here is the final product, the rock broke just right, I mean literally, the crack is touching the fossil. Close call! I have considered trying to remove some of the matrix to expose it more, but I decided against it in order not to break a perfect tooth. Psammodus sp. ? Continued on next post... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 Next up, I started searching the layer I mentioned earlier, and boy was I rewarded! Laying right on the surface of the mud was this beautiful tooth. It was unfortunately in pieces, but I managed to put it back together at home. Deltodus sp. in situ (well sorta, I picked it up first and then put it back to take a picture (impatience)): Here it is all fixed up: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 At this same spot, I also found many nice little inverts, including: phosphate gastropod molds, conularids, a small piece of the internals of an ammonoid, and two bivalves. I have no idea what the large thing on the left is: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 The next spot I searched was a green shale layer, very similar in color to the thing green layer I hunt in the Monteagle Limestone in TN, and guess what...it has the same sorts of fossils in it, despite being a bit older! I imagine that the malachite green beds are somehow associated with horn corals reefs. If not, it is an interesting coincidence. Horn corals, lots and lots of horn corals: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 (edited) Finally, I brought a thin layered limestone boulder that had lots of phosphatized debris in it. Upon closer (very close) inspection of it, I found this awesome little tooth. I am going with Protacrodus as the ID, but it might be something else. The image has the tip of a needle for scale, which is maybe a millimeter and a half in diameter. This tooth is tiny! Protacrodus sp. shark tooth Edited May 7, 2016 by TNCollector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 WOW, those are some neat finds!! Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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